Since Dustin Redmond learned that the man twice convicted of his mother’s murder would get a third trial, he racked his brain to remember details from the night of her death 25 years ago.
Redmond struggled to recall the two men who he watched beat, strangle and suffocate his mother when he was 3. Most importantly, he tried to remember if Willard McCarley, his mother’s ex-boyfriend, was one of those men. But he couldn’t.
“I will never say you are guilty or not guilty,” Redmond told McCarley on Thursday during his sentencing for the murder of Charlene Puffenbarger, Redmond’s mother. “I don’t know. Unless I remember, there is new evidence or you admit it, in my eyes it will always be a question mark, which for me is miserable.”
Redmond, now 28, told McCarley that he’s sorry if the man didn’t kill his mother and forgives him if he did. He asked if he could shake McCarley’s hand.
A surprised-looking McCarley shook his head yes, but was overruled by the deputies around him.
Redmond’s candid remarks — and unusual handshake request — were the biggest surprises in what was essentially a redo of McCarley’s two previous sentencings. McCarley was convicted by a Summit County jury of aggravated murder for the third time Wednesday. Higher courts ordered new trials for him because of errors in his two earlier trials.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Joy Malek Oldfield gave McCarley the same required sentence as the judge in his previous trials — life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.
McCarley, 53, of Northfield, didn’t speak at his sentencing at the advice of his attorneys because he again plans to appeal. He has maintained his innocence from the start and has been in prison for 11 years.
Puffenbarger, 26, was found dead in her Twinsburg Township home on Jan. 20, 1992. Her two sons, Dustin and Derrek, ages 3 and 2, were home but were unharmed.
McCarley was arrested in 2004 after a cold-case task force reopened the investigation. A second man thought to be involved in the killing hasn’t been apprehended.
Prosecutors used the same argument in McCarley’s latest trial as the previous two — that McCarley killed Puffenbarger to avoid paying child support for Derrek, their son. Defense attorneys, however, argued the prosecution didn’t have enough to convict McCarley, calling the case “conjecture, speculation and guessing.”
The latest jury disagreed, though, and found McCarley guilty after about three hours of deliberations.
Assistant Prosecutor Jay Cole, who was part of all three of McCarley’s murder trials, said McCarley has claimed innocence and shown no remorse. Worst of all, he said, McCarley forced Puffenbarger’s family to endure three trials — all with the same outcome.
“He needs to accept it and move on,” Cole said. “He’s never going to do that. He is expecting a quick reversal and appeal.”
Cole noted that Derrek had his infant son in court with him, Charlene’s and McCarley’s grandson.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, who attended the sentencing, promised in a news release Thursday that her office will “never stop fighting for Charlene or her family.”
Phyllis Puffenbarger, Charlene’s mother, stood facing McCarley and told him she was pleased to see him back in an orange jail jumpsuit, rather than the suit he wore during the trial.
“You’re right where you should be,” she told him. “You are the most heartless and worthless person I’ve ever met.”
Puffenbarger said she is pleased that justice was served a third time.
“I’m so thankful you cannot torture, beat and strangle someone else’s daughter like you did mine,” she said. When Redmond gave his remarks, he made it clear he was speaking for himself and not the rest of his family.
Redmond, knowing he would testify in McCarley’s third trial, said he looked at a photograph of McCarley countless times over the past three years, hoping to jog his memory. During his testimony, Redmond said he recalls some details of the murder, like a tall man and shorter man attacking his mother, but nothing else about their appearances.
“I don’t blame you for another trial,” he told McCarley. “I would do the same if I was in your situation.”
Ken Puffenbarger, Charlene’s outspoken brother, got the last word on behalf of his family.
“You deserve to be there,” he told McCarley about his life prison sentence. “I hope you die there. It is just despicable what you have done to multiple families — with zero remorse.”
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.